Blues City Travelers, Part II

After breakfast on Friday morning, we headed to the Memphis zoo.  The zoo was the primary reason we decided to go to Memphis...they have one of only four sets of giant pandas in the US!

The very cool entrance to the zoo...

...and more fountains, just inside!  The girls were sold, without seeing the first animal!

We went straight to the China exhibit.  Knowing how rare giant pandas are, I felt all teary-eyed, watching this amazing guy munching on his bamboo.  The pandas have a large outdoor play area, but one of the zookeepers told us it was too hot that day for them to be outside.

In addition to the pandas, the girls got to see their first hippopotamus.  We also loved the extensive collection of large cats.  "Sasha's cousins!" the girls kept remarking.

And Memphis has a really great area to feed the giraffes.  I asked the girls, "Who is going to feed the giraffes?"  And B answered right away, "Sissy!"

Baby A was the braver of the two initially, but B got in on the action after a couple of minutes.  I LOVE this picture of her feeding the daddy giraffe, B with her tongue sticking out in concentration!

Friday afternoon, I took the girls to get ice cream, while Daddy had a little bit of down time.  We walked around downtown quite a bit more, and then took the trolley to Beale Street for supper.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early for another big breakfast.  We had to wait on the restaurant to open at 8am, so we made a few laps around Court Square again.  Here are the girlies, once again in front of the fountain...

And I love this picture of the girls looking to see if any trolleys were coming...

Breakfast at the Blue Plate Cafe was worth the wait.  My girls can pack away the pancakes, I tell ya!

Here's Baby B, making a silly face while we anxiously awaited our order...

And here's Baby A, enjoying some fresh fruit with her cinnamon raisin short stack...

We walked around downtown some more (we're big walkers, can you tell???), and we were waiting at the entrance to the Fire Museum when it opened at 9am.

The Fire Museum was not very large, but it was conveniently located downtown.  It was really cool to see the displays of antique fire engines, like this horse-drawn one...

The best part was the hands-on room, where the girls got to "drive" a couple of different fire trucks.  Here's Baby A at the wheel...

The girls took turns steering...

...and they had to turn every crank and wheel, of course.

After playing at the museum, we went back to the Peabody to watch the ducks get off the elevator and come down the red carpet into the fountain, at precisely 11am.  We watched from the balcony...here's a shot of the enormous crowd downstairs.

We ate one last meal in Memphis before heading home.

It was a full few days...and I think I'm STILL catching up on laundry (somehow???), but we had a blast!  We're looking forward to a few more family adventures over the next couple of months.

[If you missed Part I, the link is HERE.]